This invention relates to improvements in sailboards and relates particularly to improvements to enable learners to more easily master the art of sailboard riding and to enable sailboards to be varied to take account of varying water conditions.
Sailboards are inherently difficult to learn to ride and sail and learners may spend many hours mastering the arts of controlling and steering the sailboard. Sailboard simulators have been proposed to assist the learner but it has been found that once the learner ventures onto the water with a sailboard the lessons learnt on a land-based simulator are of little value.
Further, sailboard riders may develop the various skills required for riding a sailboard in relatively calm water to find great difficulty in riding the sailboard in rougher waters or in relatively strong winds which adversely affect the stability of the sailboard.
It has long been known to use one or more floats to give stability to marine craft. Australian Patent Application No. 62604/80 describes the use of a pair of floats to give added stability to a sailboard. In this specification, the floats are carried by support means and are releasably secured to the sailboard so that the floats act to effectively broaden the beam of the sailboard to provide more stability.
U.K. Patent Application No. 2,084,521 discloses a similar arrangement of floats or pontoons for providing added stability to a sailboard. In this specification, the pontoons are rigidly interconnected by a cross-member which is held to the sailboard by appropriate straps or the like.
The arrangements described in these two patent specifications do not fully overcome the difficulties experienced by learners in mastering the arts of sailing a sailboard. Such floats or pontoons are relatively heavy and complicated and require a special fastening means to enable the floats or pontoons to be secured to the sailboard. Further, the cross-members interconnecting the floats or pontoons constitutes an obstruction on the upper surface of the sailboard such that the sailboard rider must be constantly aware of and be careful with his/her foot placement to avoid tripping.
French Patent Application No. 7924371 (Publication No. 2466390) and the corresponding European Patent Application No. 80420107.7 disclose other arrangements of floats secured to the side edges of a sailboard in order to improve the stability of the board. The floats described in these specifications are secured by straps which pass over and under the sailboard and the floats are formed with fittings which, it is proposed, act to reduce relative pivotal movement between the float and the sailboard.
However, because of the inherent flexibility of the straps and the float material, some relative movement does occur between the sailboard and the floats. Further, the straps passing across the top of the sailboard provide an obstruction for the feet of the sailboard rider.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate the disadvantages inherent in the use of floats as described in the above referenced patent specifications.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide apparatus which can be used with a sailboard during initial learning and which can be removed therefrom once the learner has developed skills in the sailboard sailing art, said apparatus being relatively simply attached to the sailboard and easily removed therefrom.